~ Richard A. Davis blogging

Monthly Archives: August 2007

I have spent my first full day in Edinburgh after arriving here on Wednesday afternoon.

The new Air NZ Boeing 777 I took out of Auckland was awesome featuring more leg room and a brilliant entertainment system (but too hard to navigate, and the handset should have a lock on it to prevent calling the hostesses by accident). The plane made even the long trip to LA bearable. The shorter trip to Frankfurt was a nightmare by comparison.

I was disappointed by the lack of free internet at various airports. One kiosk charged 18euro an hour for access. A real hardship when one has to wait several hours in an airport.

I saw three movies on the Auckland to LA flight: Blades of Glory (6/10); The World’s Fastest Indian (7.5/10) and Shrek the Third (6.5/10). On the jounrney also I read Faith and Politics After Christendom: The Church as a Movement for Anarchy (After Christendom) by Jonathan Bartley. It is more of a survey of the shifting grouns in church and state relations in the UK than an Christian anarchist manifesto, which is what I was expecting. But such changing grounds means something else when one lives within a soceity with an established church. Just as the coloniser has trouble understanding decolonisation, it may seem to be anarchical to disestablish the Church of England.

Yesterday I walked into town through the Royal Botanic Gardens. I was pleased to see a cabbage tree and later saw some gorse (a native of Scotland!). There was an insatlled exhibition of Hard Rain – the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s song pset to photographs. It was quite striking – check out the website: http://www.hardrainproject.com/exhibition.htm

I then headed into town and tried to find a call phone. While I abhor the lack of competition in NZ there is too much choice here -not only of companies, but also plans or lack thereof.

I then walked up the Mound to New College and also sussed out where I’ll be living g soon. Then i walked across the Royal mile and down into the main University Area. There isnn’t much of a campus to speak of – it is mixed up with houses and shops and parks. But I’m sure it will have its own charm. I found a new favourite bookstore Word Power and had a feed at a wholefood cafe.

It is hard to believe that I’m fianlly here in Edinburgh. I feel a bit like Burt Munro in the the World’s Fastest Indian – having a dream and seeing it through.While I don’t expect to set a world record (a meaningless concept in theology) I hope to do some good and have some adventures. Stay tuned.

In packing for Edinburgh I’m going through lots of old papers. Here are some highlights (in no special order.

PETITION FOR THE RETURN OF TELECOM TO PUBLIC OWNERSHIP by SPOT (Society for Publicly Owned Telecommunications) , 1998. Their reasons:

Telecom rips us all off

Telecom sacks thousands and bashes workers

Telecom abuses its monopoly

Service has deteriorated

Negative social impact – cellphone towers

Political interference

Since 1998 SPOT has been vindicated – only this morning we hear about disgruntled XTRA customers. Shame on you Telecom.

TOBY RUSHBROOK was my person of the year in 1994. I have a clipping of him from the Evening Post’s roundup of that year. He was the seventh former from Burnside High School who challenged Prime Minister Jim Bolger to acknowledge that the poor and hungry are with us in New Zealand. Bolger didn’t appreciate that; I did. Good on him.

EAST TIMOR was big news in the mid-1990s. I wrote to Don McKinnon, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, several times about the issue. In one reply he wrote:

New Zealand is opposed to the acquisition of territory by force. As stated by the Foreign Minister in 1978, however, our judgement is that “the integration of East Timor with Indonesia is irreversible. No useful purpose is served by denying this….”.

…

We have, and will continue to convey the concerns of New Zealanders to Indonesian authorities at all levels. New Zealand Embassy personnel visit the island regularly and follow the situation closely. Our objective, however, is to achieve results, not generate headlines.